Shock resistant furniture latch



3,473,834 SHOCK RESISTANT FUR LATCH Charles David Lehmann and Maurice Bowman Younger, In, Wayneshoro, Va., assignors to Hopeman Brothers, Inc, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 27, 1967, Ser. No. 678,637 Int. Cl. Ec 1/10,- E051) 15/02 US. Cl. 292-175 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A latch for furniture drawers and other closures comprises a keeper, flexibly mounted on the case, and a keeper guide flexibly mounted on the closure. When the keeper and guide are engaged, a latch bar passes through aligned openings in the keeper and guide. The operative end of the latching bar is oblique so that an opening movement of the closure tends to cause the latching bar to move farther toward its latching position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to latches, and particularly to latching means for furniture drawers and other furniture closures.

Furniture for use aboard ship is particularly subject to violent shocks, which may tend to cause opening of the various closures such as drawers and cabinet doors as a result of the disengagement of conventional latching means resulting from the relative excursion of the case and closures. It is well recognized that such relative excursions do occur, and are characterized by a series of vibrations during which conventional latching means may become engaged and disengaged a number of times as the result of a single blow.

Furniture used for military purposes and particularly for combat use must meet strict requirements with regard to shock-resistance in order to avoid injury to personnel or to vital ships systems which might occur as a result of a shock resulting from an explosion, which could cause furniture components to fly through the air.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, a keeper and a keeper guide are arranged to be engaged, and are mounted with sufficient flexibility so that they can accommodate the relative movements of the case and closure. The keeper and keeper guide are effectively impaled by a latching bar, which is so formed that, when it is in latching position, any tendency of the keeper and keeper guide to become disengaged causes the latching bar to be moved by a cam action farther toward its latching position. While the invention will be described with particular reference to a latching mechanism for maintaining a drawer in a cabinet, it will be understood that the invention is applicable to other cases such as desks, door frames and the like, and to other closures such as doors, lids and the like.

The object of the invention is to provide a latch which maintains cases and their closures in engagement under conditions of severe mechanical shock. Other objects will be apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary horizontal section of a drawer and cabinet provided with a latching mechanism in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevation of a latching bar;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevation of a keeper guide;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevation of a keeper;

nited States Patent O ice FIGURE 5 is a front elevation of a plate having a latching bar guide and a spring retainer; and

FIGURE 6 is a side elevation of the plate shown in FIGURE 5. 1

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGURE 1, side 2 of a cabinet is shown provided with a jamb 4 at its corner, and with a stiffener 6 suitably fastened to its interior side by spotweld 8 attaching flange 10 to side 2 and by a similar spotweld attaching flange 12 to side 2. A drawer having a front panel 14, and side panels, one of which is indicated at 16, is arranged to slide on suitable tracks (not shown) within the cabinet. An inside drawer head 18, along with panel 16 defines the usable part 20 of the drawer, and separates the usable part of the drawer from space 22 between panel 14 and head 18, in which the latching mechanism is provided. A conventional drawer pull 24 is provided on panel 14.

A keeper 26 is fastened to stiffener 6 by screws 28, threaded into reinforcement 29, which is spot welded to stiffener 6, and portion 30 of the keeper is connected to the portion attached to stiffener 6 by transverse portion 32. An opening 34 is provided in portion 30 of the keeper, and the end of portion 30 is beveled at 36 in order to impart a camming action to move the latching bar toward the left when the drawer is being closed.

Keeper 26 is flexible, and since it is provided with transverse portion 32, portion 30 of the keeper is permitted to move wtih respect to the cabinet in all horizontal directions to a suflicient extent to permit a considerable excursion of the drawer with respect to the case under shock conditions.

Guide 40 is attached to panel 16 by rivets 42. An oblique portion 44 of keeper guide 40 connects a substantially U-shaped portion 46 to the portion of keeper guide 40 abutting panel 16. Openings 50 and 52 are provided on opposite sides of portion 46, opening 52 being somewhat larger than opening 50. The opposite sides of portion 46 are sufliciently spaced to permit entrance of portion 30 of the keeper, and the provision of an oblique portion 54 on the end of the keeper guide insures the entrance of keeper portion 30. When the keeper and the keeper guide are fully engaged, openings 52, 34 and 50 are aligned at their forward ends. The keeper guide extends into space 22 through opening 56, provided between panel 16 and extension 58 of panel 14. The keeper also passes through opening 56 when the drawer is closed.

A convention thumb-operated button 60 is mounted on the end of a rod 62, which passes through slot 64 in panel 14, and which passes through hole 66 in latch bar 68, a pin 70 being provided to prevent disengagement of the latch bar from rod 62. Washers 71 are provided on either side of panel 14 about rod 62, and are preferably formed from a plastic such as Nylatron.

A spring retaining element 72 is integrally formed with latching bar 68 by punching, and is provided in order to retain an end of a coil tension spring 74, the other end of which is secured to member 76, which is fixed to plate 77. Spring 74 urges latching bar 68 toward the right. Latching bar 68 slides between flange 78 of plate 77 and plate 77, and is thereby constrained against rearward movement. The latching bar rests on edge 79 of member 76 (FIGURE 6).

The end of latching bar 68 is bent to form a hookshaped portion having an oblique extremity 80, which extends toward the front panel 14 of the drawer.

A key-operated lock included plate 82 and cylinder 84 is conventional, and operates locking cam 86, which, when it is in the locking position as shown, prevents the latching bar from being moved toward the left by engaging member 88, which is part of latching bar 68. The lock cylinder passes through opening 93 in plate 77, and plate 77 is thereby held fixed with respect to panel 14.

Keeper guide 40, like keeper 26 is made sufficiently flexible, so that with the flexibility of keeper 26, the keeper and guide will be maintained in engagement with each other during relative movement of the drawer and cabinet. When the latching bar portion 80 passes through openings 52, 34 and 50, portion 30 of the keeper is compelled to follow portion 46 of the keeper guide through out its motion during a shock. A forward movement of the drawer relative to the cabinet causes edge 92 of opening 34 to become engaged with the forward side of oblique portion 80 of the latching bar, thus urging the latching bar toward the right by a camming action.

It will be apparent that the keeper and keeper guide may be interchanged by providing the guide on the cabinet and by attaching the keeper to the drawer, and that various other modifications can be made.

We claim:

1. A latch for securing case and closure elements in .fixed relationship to each other comprising a keeper fixed to one of said elements, said keeper including an end member comprising a portion having an opening extending through said portion, guide means fixed to the other of said elements, said guide means including an end member comprising a pair of portions spaced from each other, at least one of said portions of said guide means having an opening extending therethrough, said portion of said keeper extending between said portions of said guide means and said openings forming a passage when said case and closure elements are in said fixed relationship to each other, and a slidable latching bar having an end portion extendable through said passage to secure said elements in fixed relationship, said end portion being obliquely bent in relation to the direction of sliding of said latch bar in a direction to be engaged by and urged in the latching direction by an edge of one of said openings when said closure moves in an opening direction.

2. A latch for securing case and closure elements in fixed relationship to each other comprising a keeper fixed to one of said elements, said keeper including an end member comprising a portion having an opening extending through said portion, guide means fixed to the other of said elements, said guide means including an end member comprising a pair of portions disposed substantially parallel to and spaced from each other, each of said portions of said guide means having openings extending'therethrough, said portion of said keeper extending between said portions of said guide means and all of said openings forming a passage when said case and closure elements are in said fixed relationship to each other, at least one of said keeper and said guide means including flexible means mounting its said end member to its said element to permit movement of said member relative to said element and a slidable latching bar having an end portion extendable through said passage to secure said elements in fixed relationship, said end portion being obliquely bent in relation to the direction of sliding of said latch bar in a direction to be engaged by and urged in the latching direction by an edge of one of said openings when said closure moves in an opening direction.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,175,394 3/1916 Winn et a1 292-2 1,223,455 4/1917 Weiss 292l FOREIGN PATENTS 732,594 6/ 1955 Great Britain.

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner R. L. WOLFE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 292-341.13 

